Denver holds a special place in my heart. I’ve watched as the local beer scene has grown and then exploded, with dozens and dozens of breweries cropping up in parts of town that didn’t even really exist, such as RiNo. Denver has long had a formidable beer scene but today it is one of the country’s best. And on this second episode of the Beer Travelers podcast , we’re going to talk with two local experts, Tristan Chan of PorchDrinking and Jonathan Shikes of the Denver Post . These two are as know...
Sep 22, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Welcome to the first episode of the new All About Beer podcast. In this premiere episode, co-hosts Em Sauter and Don Tse examine the Cold IPA with Kevin Davey, of Wayfinder Beer , who is credited with creating the style. From the specs and flavor, process and debunking myths, this show will explain and examine every facet of craft beer’s newest style. Subscribe to the All About Beer Podcast wherever you get your podcasts and please leave us a review. We appreciate your support. This Episode is S...
Aug 01, 2022•50 min
We’re back this week with the second part of my interview with beer writer, author, and judge Melissa Cole . Since we last heard from Melissa, I actually had the chance to have beers in person with her in Minneapolis during the Craft Brewers Conference. Along with Melissa, my Beer Edge partner John Holl and a couple of Australian beer writers hit several dive bars in Northeast Minneapolis before singing our hearts out at 1 am karaoke. As I said in the last episode, it’s never a dull day with Mel...
Jun 07, 2022•37 min
It’s never boring with Melissa Cole . The first time we met remains a bit of a fever dream for me. We get into it in the first few minutes of this interview and, in character, Melissa manages to recall micro details of what we ate and drank that night six years ago. Melissa’s work is similarly colorful and a bit hard to characterize. She appears to have transcended the role of journalist and become somewhat of a presenter, as the Brits might say. She’s an accomplished author of several excellent...
Feb 23, 2022•46 min
Parenting isn’t easy. And trying to manage young kids, especially during a pandemic, is incredibly hard. I don’t talk about my personal life much on these podcasts, in my work, or on social media. I prefer to keep the separation. But I also know there is value in letting others who may be similarly situated know that things are rarely the well constructed perfection reflected in smiling family Instagram photos. And that’s how I first noticed today’s guest, beer writer Eoghan Walsh . A native of ...
Jan 25, 2022•59 min
This week we continue our conversation with beer writer Matthew Curtis . If you missed part 1 of our discussion , I recommend you go back and give it a listen. In that episode, Matt and I discussed his work with Pellicle, his online beer, wine, and cider magazine, how he developed his voice as a writer and podcaster, and about his profile of St. Mars of the Dessert in Sheffield, England. We also discussed important and sensitive subjects such as balancing work while maintaining your mental healt...
Jan 11, 2022•50 min
One of the best parts of covering the craft beer industry for a while is experiencing new voices. Perspectives tend to harden over time and without the addition of new blood, they can calcify and begin to become immovable. And the industry so often feels like a singular experience, one that speaks with a too uniform voice that serves as so much retread. Matthew Curtis stands in the middle of all of this. He started writing about beer long enough ago that he has seen a few things. But he’s also n...
Dec 21, 2021•1 hr 1 min
26 years is a long time to run a business, let alone one with your spouse. When my guest today first met her future husband, they were 16 years old and attending the same high school in Massachusetts. He would soon be booted out of that school but their relationship remained strong. When years later he floated the idea of opening a brewery, the two would help build the brewery together. The story of Dogfish Head is one we’ve heard many times before, often told by its very familiar co-founder and...
Dec 07, 2021•57 min
In our most recent episode, I hosted a longtime friend and fellow beer writer, Joe Stange , who told us about moving his family to Thailand in the middle of a pandemic, the importance of traditional styles, and the future of the American beer bar. In this episode, we continue our discussion, moving on to his somewhat unexpected defense of hazy IPAs, his thoughts on why Stone’s Berlin project failed, and whether lager will finally have its day. It’s hard to capture the essence of a writer in a sp...
Nov 30, 2021•45 min
The pandemic has been a weird experience for everyone. Everything suddenly stopped, things went quiet, we became trapped in our homes for months on end. Even for the most stable among us, the experience was unsettling. For my guest today, the pandemic was anomalous in an entirely different way. Newly returned to the US after more than a decade living abroad, writer Joe Stange and his two children moved to a family farm in rural Missouri and then found themselves sort of stuck there as COVID hit....
Nov 18, 2021•55 min
Paul Verdu is the vice president and head of Tenth and Blake, which is the craft focused arm of its parent company, Molson Coors. Under this umbrella, Coors, then later MillerCoors, and now MolsonCoors, have each sought to launch, develop, and promote flavorful beers. Its portfolio has shifted over the years, once including Blue Moon until it outgrew the group and moved onto the bigger leagues. It has also been an active buyer of craft brands. As it stands today, Tenth and Blake includes the Jac...
Nov 11, 2021•54 min
Emma Janzen and I have known each other for years. Well, in the sort of way that two people on Twitter who have never met in person can. We’ve traded messages, likes, and retweets. She’s a talented writer and photographer who possesses a great eye for detail while not losing focus on the story. She’s someone whose work I’ve followed for a long time and who I’ve wanted to have on the podcast. Her career is a melange of multimedia endeavors. After focusing on audio and video editing, she graduated...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr
Perhaps it’s because we’ve been trapped in our houses and then our cities and counties and states for too long, but my mind has been on San Diego a lot lately. In recent episodes, we’ve had some great guests from the area and today is no exception. About 2 years ago, a small earthquake shook the craft beer world. Ballast Point, whose sale only a few years earlier for a billion dollars to Constellation, had gobsmacked everyone from the tap room on Main Street to Wall Street board rooms, had unexp...
Oct 26, 2021•1 hr 1 min
My guest today is Chris Leguizamon , a beer educator and marketer living and working in San Diego and one of the new voices of craft beer. Chris has worked at several of southern California’s top breweries, including the aforementioned Stone and Alesmith, as a tour guide and brand ambassador. From his earliest work in the industry, Chris recognized the importance of education, both for himself and for visitors taking his tours. He has honed his approach to beer education tour by tour, helping to...
Oct 12, 2021•45 min
One of the biggest stories of the year has unquestionably been the mistreatment of women in the beer industry. Long simmering just below the surface, the issue rose to the surface recently on Instagram and took off from there. The erasure of women in the retelling of craft beer’s story and history has also long been a problem. And it’s one that my guest today has been focused on fixing. My guest today is Tara Nurin , a longtime beer writer and the author of the upcoming book, “A Woman's Place Is...
Aug 30, 2021•49 min
I’ve lived in the Boston area for more than 20 years now and it’s just a weird city when it comes to beer. Perhaps due to Sam Adams and Jim Koch, the city has earned an outsized reputation in the craft beer world. Compared to any other city our size population wise, we should have way more breweries and beer bars. Yet, Boston’s beer reputation is big. And there is one likely reason that Boston is considered such a great beer city and that is the focus of our episode today. Smart, dynamic, and fu...
Aug 23, 2021•51 min
The debate over which is the best American beer city has raged from the earliest days of craft beer. Powerhouse names such as Portland (both Oregon and Maine), Asheville, Denver, Chicago, and others have each made convincing cases. And right there from the beginning has been San Diego, basking in its sunshine and style defining West Coast IPAs, and smiling knowingly at its competition. This week we have one of the most dialed in people following the San Diego beer scene. Beer writer and marketer...
Aug 16, 2021•55 min
In the world of bars, pubs, and dives, one of the greatest signs of respect is to have a bar stool named after you. John Holl has a bar stool named after him in a Tennessee brewery. And the late great publican Don Younger of the Horse Brass Pub in Portland, Oregon, had a corner seat at the now closed Falling Rock beer bar in Denver named after him. With its recent closure, I wonder what happened to that chair. In the beer industry, one legit sign of respect is to have a brewery name a beer after...
Jul 19, 2021•56 min
Chris Shepard is one of the keenest voices in the craft beer industry. A Senior Editor for Craft Brew News at Beer Marketer's Insights , he covers the trade side of the craft beer industry with wit, wisdom, and a healthy dose of skepticism. You might wonder how a trained actor and theater director found his way to writing about the business of beer. Well, as you’ll hear Chris tell it, Beer Marketers is a 50 year old company, a true family run operation, founded by Jerry Steinman. His son Benj, a...
Jul 13, 2021•50 min
Today we talk with one of the most recognizable names in the beer industry at large. An aspiring rapper, occasional poet, famed brewery tinkerer, and now helping run one of the largest craft breweries in the world, Sam Calagione has had a storied and frenetic career. The co-founder of the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery , Sam Calagione’s story began in 1995 when he and his wife Mariah opened Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, the first brewpub in the State of Delaware. From the beginning, Dogfish esta...
Jul 05, 2021•50 min
Writer Kenny Gould got his start with beer by running a tasting club in college. He was passionate about the subject so it remained on his mind after he graduated and moved to New York to work for Gear Patrol magazine. In his spare time, Kenny and a friend developed the concept for Hop Culture. In the beginning, the goals were simple, a place to post their articles about beer. A basic blog. But the idea quickly grew from there, developing into a daily online lifestyle magazine for craft beer ent...
Mar 09, 2021•50 min
One of the best parts of covering the beer industry is watching fresh new voices enter the space. The craft beer industry has long suffered from a tendency to highlight the same people over and over again and beer media is no different. We in the beer press tend to group around well-known individuals and help elevate their thoughts and opinions while failing to dig deeper to hear from others. It’s a known issue and one we need to work to change. Also, such myopia deprives us of the new experienc...
Mar 02, 2021•49 min
This week we're catching up with Chalonda and Nik White to check out the Chicago beer scene that they both represent so well. Chalonda White represents one of the freshest voices on craft beer. And her husband Nik White is an old school Chicago beer guy. Together, this dynamic husband and wife squad are helping push the craft beer community forward. From her Afro Beer Chick handle on Twitter, Chalonda spits fire and truth, celebrating the breweries and beers that she loves while also keeping the...
Feb 16, 2021•1 hr 20 min
We start today with writer, editor, and my friend, Ben Keene , the former editor of Beer Advocate Magazine . Founded in 2007, BeerAdvocate Magazine went on to become one of the beer industry’s best publications. And to be sure, I’m a little biased. I wrote a monthly column for the magazine for more than a decade. In more than 130 columns, I wrote about my love of lager, the rise and fall and rise again of extreme brewing, and about all the little idiosyncrasies that make the craft beer industry ...
Feb 11, 2021•44 min
Old pals John Holl , Neil Witte , Carla Jean Lauter , Josh Noel , and Andy Crouch get together to discuss 2020, the year that wasn't. This is part 2 of the conversation. For more information on the Beer Edge Podcast , follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge . There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge . Host: Andy Crouch Guests: Neil Witte , Carla Jean Lauter , Josh Noel , and John Holl Tags: beer, craft beer, Portland Beer, Neil Witte, Carla Jean Lauter, Josh Noel Sponsor:...
Dec 22, 2020•57 min
Looking back on 2020, one of the things I miss most is getting together with other folks in the beer industry, trading gossip and news, arguing a bit, and laughing over beers. Back in March, right before the long quarantine set in, my partner John Holl and I traveled up to Portland, Maine to speak at a beer conference. On the night before the conference, John and I hit up some of our favorite breweries around Portland, including Allagash where we ran into draft beer genius and longtime industry ...
Dec 15, 2020•1 hr
Welcome to the second and final episode of the Beer Edge extended interview with Peter Bissell of Bissell Brothers Brewing in Portland, Maine. If you haven’t heard the first episode, I’d recommend going back and giving it a listen. With that said, you can also just listen to this one. Do whatever works for you. In the first episode, we talked with Pete about hockey, his relationship with his younger brother and partner Noah, and how their shared vision for the Bissell Brothers business developed...
Dec 04, 2020•46 min
On this episode of the Beer Edge podcast, with Peter Bissell of Bissell Brothers Brewing , one of the beer industry’s most interesting voices. Founded in 2013, with a mission to change people's perceptions of what beer and the beer experience can be, while always staying dedicated to its home state of Maine, the Bissell brothers were unlikely owners of a craft brewery. As you’ll hear, Noah, who runs the technical and brewing side of the business, was only 21 years old when he pitched his older b...
Nov 23, 2020•43 min
Welcome back to the Beer Edge podcast . In last week's episode, we talked with Joey Redner of the Cigar City Brewing Company about his origin story, what got him into beer, and the state of the beer scene in Florida when he started his brewery. If you haven’t listened to that episode, I’d recommend pausing this one and going back and giving it a listen. In part two of the interview this week, we explore how Redner started to think about Cigar City’s future and what gave him second thoughts about...
Nov 13, 2020•42 min
Before Cigar City Brewing got its start in 2009, the beer scene in Florida was a shell of its current self. There were a couple dozen small brewpubs largely scattered in tourist areas around the state. And the quality of beer was, well, enough to drive you to buy Michelob Amber Bock and Yuengling. In the midst of all of the middling amber and brown ales served in local brewpubs, one local beer geek dreamed of something more. At the time, Joey Redner was writing a beer column for a local newspape...
Nov 05, 2020•48 min
